If you are a frequent user of the Google AdWords keyword tool then you may have noticed that they have made another change. You will no longer see the green and red bars that showed you the competition data like you did before.

Now, the Google AdWords keyword tool ranks the competition data with the words high, medium, or low rankings. Previously the green and red bars showed you, at a glance, how competitive the keyword was that you were researching.

Google does still allow you to download a report from their site to get the competition data as a real number that the red and green bars used to stand for. If this will continue no one knows but for now it is still available.

The rankings and what they stand for are as follows:

High ranking – Competition is above .67

Medium ranking – Competition is between .33 and .66

Low ranking – Competition is below .33

All the data you will see is only directly related to AdWords data including cost, and competition. No other search data is shown. If there is high competition for the keyword you are researching the rank will be high.

This change as well as the other changes Google has made over the past few months is designed to try to make things easier for the user. Business people trying to get an edge on the competition will no longer have to "guess" at what the colored bars mean. they can read the ranking and know whether or not they have a good keyword or phrase.

Keyword research can now be a lot quicker because as any business owner knows, "time is money". If you use this tool every day then you can see the ranking and go to Google just like you always did to get the real numbers so it really is not any more complicated than it used to be.

Google has put out a list of the top 20 keywords searched for and included the CPC for all of them. The top Keyword is "insurance" and comes along with a hefty pay per click sum of $54.91.

The study was done by WordStream over a 90-day period. The others keywords that comprise the list of the most competitive keywords and the highest CPCs are as follows:

There they are, the most searched for and most expensive keywords ever according to WordStream. The folks at WordStream used their own information and that of the Google AdWords Keyword tool. Google makes billions of dollars each year and now you know how they do it.